One common type of data recording equipment is that for recording hours at which a person is at work and for printing such intervals on an attendance record card. Such apparatus has commonly been electromechanical in nature and relatively inflexible, which has by reason of technical limitations led to two main types of equipment being available, one type for recording hours of work attendance and another type for job costing. With the increased use of flexitime in industry the need for more flexible system has arisen, preferably with a data processing capability, which can combine the functions of work attendance and job costing.
Accordingly there is currently available a variety of computer based systems, as time recording equipment for example, which are arranged to read cards, badges and the like and to perform various data processing functions. However, the need exists for compact and relatively inexpensive stand-alone time recording equipment having in-built data processing capability.